Ania Vu | Composer, Pianist

ABOUT

Polish of Vietnamese descent composer and pianist, Ania Vu (née Vũ Đặng Minh Anh) is pursuing a Ph.D. as a Benjamin Franklin Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. Her music explores the interplay between linguistical sound properties and meanings, musical energy related to form, and varied notions of time. Her current mentors are Anna Weesner, Marcos Balter, and James Primosch. In 2017, she received her BM in composition and theory from the Eastman School of Music.

Winner of the BNMI's 9th Annual Commissioning Competition (2021) and prize recipient of the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra's Call for Scores (2020), Ania has had the privilege of working with the Daedalus and MIVOS string quartets, TAK ensemble, International Contemporary Ensemble, Iridium Saxophone Quartet, and soprano Rose Hegele and Paulina Swierczek. Her music has been featured at several festivals, including the Tanglewood Music Center, Tage Neuer Musik in Regensburg (Germany), International New Music Festival at USF, Red Note New Music Festival (USA), Newburyport Chamber Music Festival (USA), Valencia International Performance Academy (Spain), SoundSCAPE (Italy), and Women in Music (USA). Upcoming main events and projects include a residency at I-Park Foundation, a collaboration with Sō Percussion, and working on a chamber opera.

Ania is also an accomplished pianist and a passionate music educator. For more information about her piano background, performances and teaching, please scroll down to Piano.

Outside of music, Ania has a passion for languages, and speaks fluent English, Polish, French, and Vietnamese, in addition to having studied Latin and German; currently, she is learning modern Greek. She also enjoys traveling - having visited 30 countries so far -, wandering in all kinds of museums, and ballroom dancing.

NEWS!

2021

May 12

Through the Doors - an opera for Chamber Ensemble, Multimedia and Electronics, has received a grant award in the amount of $4,000 from the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation. So far, this project has also received the SASgov Research Grant and the Albrecht Dissertation Research Award.

May 2

Here's a Score-Video of me playing Dark Whims, an older piano piece from 2013. It's now on George N. Gianopoulos's YouTube Channel!

April 25

I wrote a blog post "Music, words, and time" where I discuss my recent work on Illuminate Women's Music. Read here.

April 19

So humbled to be the winner of the BNMI's 9th Annual Commissioning Competition. Tik-Tak was selected by an outside panel of industry professionals from an anonymous pool of almost 100 compositions. I will be writing a new piece for Pierrot + percussion + soprano that will premiere in 2022.

April 10

Against Time now available as a Score-Video on George N. Gianopoulos's YouTube Channel!

March 31

Many thanks to Molly Petrilla from the The Pennsylvania Gazette, a Penn alumni magazine, for writing an article about my work and thoughts on being a composer during the pandemic. Read here.

March 22

Grateful that Tik-Tak was featured at the CMS Northeast Conference this past weekend, and that the piece also received the CMS Northeast Student Composition Award!

February 2

Very excited to have been accepted to the Splice Institute 2021 (Online) on a full scholarship and to learn more about electronic music.

January 29

Tik-Tak is now available as a Score-Video on George N. Gianopoulos's YouTube Channel!

2020

December 1

I had a fun and informal conversation with David Yang, the Artistic Director of the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival, and discussed my newest piece, Dance Variations on a Theme by J.S. Bach, my background, music, favorite food, and more. Watch here.

October 30

The University of South Florida's New Music Consortium invited me to give an online presentation about my music. My topic was "Writing Text to Write Music". Watch here.

October 15

I'm so honored to be invited by Penn's Wolf Humanities Center to perform a recital in the fall of 2021. More info under Events.

September 9

Five in One is now available as a Score-Video on George N. Gianopoulos's YouTube Channel! Watch here.

September 1

Dragonflies receives Fourth Prize at the Megalopolis Saxophone Orchestra's Call for Scores.
The piece will be performed by the MANA Quartet during their 20/21 season.

July 6 - August 17

Online participation at the Tanglewood Music Center (TMC).

May 31

Thank you, Nguyễn Bình from Viet Nam News, for writing an article in English about my interest in music and languages. Read here.

May 7

Big thanks to the Vietnamese newspaper Dân Trí for writing an article about me and my work. Read here. (Disclaimer: it's in Vietnamese!)

February 25

I've been invited to I-Park Foundation, Inc. for a residency. Looking forward to doing my first residency ever!

January 27 - May 11

I'll be participating in the IvyPlus Exchange Scholar Program in Spring 2020 to take the course "Instrument, Interface, Installation: Building Sound" taught by prof. Seth Cluett at Columbia University.

January 8

Beyond delighted to have been invited to Tanglewood Music Center as a Composer Fellow!

EVENTS

UPCOMING

All event times are in the Eastern Timezone.

2021

November 10, 5PM EDT

Ania is invited to perform as part of Penn's Wolf Humanities Center's 21/22 annual program on the theme of "Migration". She will give a one-hour recital of her piano works (that will include a premiere of a new piece), and works by other composers who experienced migration.

September 29 - October 25

Ania is invited to a residency at I-Park Foundation, Inc.

August 20, time TBA

Ania is invited to give a talk about her work at the VASCAM Talk Art Series 2021.

PAST

March 20, 3:15PM

Streamed performance of Tik-Tak at the 2021 CMS Northeast Regional Conference (online).

February 17, 2:30PM

Ania performs all of her piano works: Piano Variations, Dark Whims, and Against Time on Illuminate Women's Music's Digital Series. Watch here.

January 9, 7PM

Streamed performance of Sept Vignettes by Maggie Cox, as part of the 2020 International New Music Festival, USF New Music Consortium. Watch here.

2020

December 20, 3PM

Virtual premiere of Dance Variations on a Theme by J.S.Bach for violin and cello, commissioned by the Newburyport Chamber Music Festival. Premiered by Nurit Pacht and Eliana Razzino Yang. Event details here.

December 4, 2:30PM

Performance of Sept Vignettes by Maggie Cox as part of the Illuminate Women's music digital concert. Watch here.

October 30, 11:15AM

Ania's invited by the New Music Consortium and the Composition Department at USF to present on her music. Watch here.

August 12, 5:00PM

Online premiere of Six Vignettes for solo Double Bass by Andres Vela as part of Tanglewood's Composition-Double Bass Collaboration.

July 6 - August 17

Ania participates at the Tanglewood Music Center (online) as a Composer Fellow.

May 5 (postponed due to COVID-19)

Ania premieres Joshua Hey's multimedia theater Derendered with members of the Arcana Ensemble, Philadelphia, PA

April 23, 7:00PM (postponed due to COVID-19)

Ania and Paulina Swierczek are invited by the Skalny Center to perform a recital of Chopin's works. Hatch Hall, Eastman School of Music, Rochester, NY

April 18, 7:30PM (postponed due to COVID-19)

Premiere of a new piece by Sō Percussion. The Annenberg Center, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

April 3, 7:30PM (now online due to COVID-19)

Performance of Five in One by a student ensemble at the 2020 International New Music Festival.
University of South Florida, FL

March 7, 5PM

Ania performs her pieces Against Time and Dark Whims, and Joshua Hey's afterimage at the 2020 CMS Northeast Conference at Temple University, Philadelphia, PA

February 15, 8PM

Performance of a może... by Rose Hegele, Wesley Fowler, and Jack Yarbrough at the New Music Festival in Boston Conservatory at Berklee, MA

January 25, 7:30PM

Performance of Against Time at the HfKM-Regensburg Tage Neuer Musik 2020.
Konzertsaal der HfKM Regensburg, Germany

2019

December 12, 8PM

Penn Sound Collective. Full premiere of I yearn, therefore I am by the Daedalus Quartet. Ania also performs Groundwater by Flannery Cunningham and afterimage by Joshua Hey. Rose Recital Hall, University of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, PA

November 15, 12PM

Premiere of I yearn, therefore I am by the Daedalus Quartet. Kelly Writers' House, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

November 2, 1PM

Ania performs Against Time at the First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia, PA

July 11, 7:30PM

Premiere of String Quartet no.2 by the Mivos Quartet at La Mutant, Valencia, Spain

May 19, 1PM

Ania performs Kurtag's Hommage à R. Schumann trio at the Curtis Summerfest. Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, PA

April 5, 7:30PM

An Evening of Polish Music - Ania and soprano Paulina Swierczek perform works by Chopin, Lutoslawski, Szymanowski, and Ania, among others. Event hosted by the Skalny Center. Interfaith Chapel, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY

March 16, 8PM

Penn Sound Collective - Premiere of Tik-Tak by TAK ensemble. Arch Auditorium, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

February 13, 7:30PM

Premiere of Dragonflies by Iridium Saxophone Quartet at the Red Note New Music Workshop, Illinois State University, Normal, IL

MUSIC

In progress

Through the Doors - an opera for chamber ensemble, multimedia, and electronics

New piece for Percussion Quartet (to be premiered by Sō Percussion)

New piece for solo Percussion (to be premiered by Wes Fowler)

2021

2+ for Piano and Percussion (to be premiered by the McKormick Duo)

t(h)rills for solo Viola/solo Cello

2020

Dance Variations on a Theme by J.S.Bach for Violin and Cello

Sept Vignettes for solo Double Bass

2019

I yearn, therefore I am for String Quartet

String Quartet no. 2

Tik-Tak for Soprano, Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Percussion

Dragonflies for Saxophone Quartet

2018

Gra dźwięków, gra słów (Soundplay, wordplay) for Female Voice, Percussion, and Piano

Five in One for Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano

Against Time for solo Piano

2017

Symphonic Suite for Orchestra

Fantasia for Orchestra

2016

String Quartet no. 1, four movements

Raindrops for Fixed Media

2015

Dark Whims for Piano, arranged for Wind Ensemble

Mrs. and Mr. Potato Heads for Flute and Bassoon

Paroles du Chagrin for Soprano and Piano

Espace for solo Piano

2014

Dark Whims for solo Piano

Earliest Works

Piano Variations [2012]

Somewhere over the Clouds for Saxophone Soprano and Piano [2012]

PIANO

Aside from being a composer, Ania is also an active pianist performing solo and chamber music, both in standard and contemporary repertoire. She loves performing new music, and has collaborated with a number of her composition colleagues and premiered their works, in addition to performing her own music. Her piano teachers include Amy Yang, Vincent Lenti, Irina Rumiancewa-Dabrowski and her mother Hong Anh Dang. She has taken lessons and masterclasses with artists such as Dang Thai Son, Wojciech Świtała, Thomas Rosenkranz, Andrzej Jasiński, Philippe Giusiano, and Katarzyna Popowa-Zydroń. As a pianist, she has won several awards in national and international competitions in Europe, and has performed in the United States, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Vietnam, and Poland.

Ania draws great satisfaction from being a music educator, teaching piano and music theory. She maintains a piano studio of students of all ages and various skill levels. At the University of Pennsylvania, she has taught an introductory course to music theory and musicianship, and an intermediate-level ear training and keyboard skills lab. In June 2015, she participated in a program where selected musicians traveled to Zimbabwe and South Africa to perform and teach high school students.

Ania Vu - Recital of her piano works

[ YouTube]

GALLERY

CONTACT

For more information or inquiries about scores, commissions, performances, or taking lessons in composition, piano, music theory/aural skills, please don’t hesitate to get in touch at ania.vu94@gmail.com.